Once again thinking about how hard a trans man AU of Arthur Pendragon would have fucked.
The blaring pressure of expectations? The quiet doubts at the back of his mind if he truly wants to be a man or just wants to give his father what he wants?
The resentment that Morgana (who is afair older than him) has about how much agency and part of the legacy he has, while they were both born as women, and she is relegated to decoration. But she doesn't want to be a man.
The funny fucking fact that Uther hates magic except! 🤓 when it's for gender transition (and possibly sold as "just herbs" because what the fuck does a late iron age man know about biology and whether or not "herbs" can make Arthur be able to sire biological offspring, let's be honest with ourselves). (Also we all know that Gaius would be the gender wizard, thus giving interesting layers to his position in court as depicted in the show, and why Uther lets him get away with so much.) (because yes Arthur would need to be able to continue the blood line)
How seriously he takes the knight stuff and the brotherhood already, so that his knight values are part of his gender concept of masculinity. Would be delicious in a trans man au.
That he is the masculine ideal, in the show and in the time, and how he still deals with imposter syndrome.
How it's probably a huuuge secret. And merlin starts living at gaius and finds out because he is terminally nosy and doesn't know boundaries. And the scene where arthur finds out merlin knows, it would be angsty as fuck and in the end their bond and the loyalty would be much deeper.
And how maybe, merlin tells arthur about his magic because hey, he knows arthurs big magical secret so it's just fair and he knows he can trust arthur. And Arthur doesn't know it's magic because he is also a (less educated (* in tags)) late iron age man and then he has a whole crisis about the foundation of his values. And it would be similar to how he found out about the thing about his mother and how uther used magic there, except here it would actually shake his foundations so much he would do something about it and question his beliefs and specifically his father and not let the plot arc flitter out uselessly. Because this time it's about himself and what he stands for and teaches his knights, and not something he feels he maybe doesn't have the right to judge fully because he doesn't understand his father's position.
And then he would start working on taking down uther. First through reform. Then when uther predictably exiles him for standing up for the values he has been raised on his whole life, he would go into the woods with his loyal followers, and teamwork with morgana who helps him escape by revealing her magic and then stays as his source inside the castle and trying to sway uther who pivots to her.
